The Innkeeper

Chapter 2348: Fudge

As an entity living within a necklace, Lex didn’t actually have eyes, and was merely a projection made up from his own spirit sense. Even so, the projection rubbed his eyes, wiping the tears of blood that had begun to pool up.

In front of him lay a list of Dao materials that had been catalogued by the city council. Even the black dragon himself had never dared look at the list. Even though this was a list compiled in the city itself, merely the knowledge of Dao materials had a burden.

Lex was in the process of developing a Primordial Dao Body, and since his body, soul and spirit were basically the same, his soul within the necklace gained the same resilience. It was for that reason that he could even read such detailed information about Dao materials without the protection of the Inn.

The name of the material might have limited effect, but when Lex also looked at its appearance, its effects and the nature of its development, it accumulated into a certain pressure. Even free knowledge had a price, and Lex could only barely begin to tolerate it because of his Primordial Dao Body.

Even then, the only reason Lex was not harmed was because this information was regarding the gentlest Dao materials that could accommodate Immortals, and wouldn’t kill them upon coming into contact. After reading about dozens of such materials, however, the strain accumulated, and Lex needed to stop.

Yet in the eyes of the black dragon, the fact that Lex only suffered from bleeding eyes after reading so much instead of direct blindness was an enormous feat! He became even more excited about working together with him!

As if that was not enough, Lex’s soul naturally emitted an aura that made the dragon feel friendly towards him, as if he was dealing with another dragon of respectable heritage.

"What progress have you made, brother Lex?" the dragon asked amicably, waiting eagerly for him to decide on their target.

"I’ve read the top 49 materials listed on the list, but I can’t believe there’s over ten thousand more on the list. It’s basically impossible to go through them all," Lex said as he continued to rub his eyes, using his own energy to slowly help himself recover.

"That’s ten thousand after your criteria was filtered out. I say rather than searching the list manually, you continue to expand your search parameters to narrow down the results further," the black dragon said.

Lex shook his head.

"I’ve already put in over a hundred filters on the search terminal," Lex said with a disbelieving smile on his face. "These are Dao materials that I could basically just go and scoop up without harming myself, and I can use them easily without wasting a lot of time and energy. Honestly, I find it somewhat difficult to believe."

Lex shook his head. He had originally thought that he would, at most, find one or two Dao materials in the Gilded Hollow that he could get his hands on, and the rest of the time he’d need to harvest Celestial grade materials. Yet he had severely underestimated the abundant wealth of the Hollow!

The issue he was now having was deciding which Dao materials to go for so that he could use as many of them as possible without causing inherent contradictions between the materials when they’re used for upgrading his necklace!

This was... the most frustrating and yet somehow simultaneously the most wonderful problem he’d ever had.

"Just because the Dao materials themselves don’t harm immortals does not mean they can be easily accessed by immortals," the black dragon told Lex. "Otherwise I would have a much larger treasure hoard than I already do. By the way, I don’t mean to pry or interfere, but I thought I’d give you a piece of advice. Do you know the reason that, despite there being so many Dao materials that can be accessed by immortals, the residents of the Fortune stronghold hardly ever go to retrieve them?"

Lex turned towards the black dragon, and though his eyes were closed, he could see him clearly with his spirit sense.

"The way you’re saying it, I suppose the Hollow’s retribution and the inherent difficulty of getting the materials aren’t the main reasons," Lex stated.

The dragon nodded.

"All peak Celestial Immortals in the Gilded Hollow aim to become Dao Lords, but the Dao tribulation cannot be taken within the Hollow. Thus, for the sake of their own future, as for the future of their neighbors, they all spread a certain piece of news so that low level immortals don’t make a mistake early on.

"As you may already know, upon reaching the peak of the Celestial realm, a cultivator will automatically learn the method to become a Dao Lord. While the exact details of the method were not shared, simply because lower level cultivators cannot bear the weight of that knowledge, they did share a piece of advice.

"Any immortal who absorbs a Dao material will find it infinitely harder to pass the Dao tribulation, which is already basically a death sentence for almost everyone who experiences it. Since then, they’ve all avoided it, leaving an abundance of these resources to be recorded in the city council files, hardly ever actually harvested."

Lex paused. Well, he’d already done that. Was he screwed? He couldn’t help but recall the moment he met his parents in Arch-Heaven, and his mother thought that he’d basically given up on becoming a Dao Lord. She actually applauded him for it, telling him he was smart for avoiding the risk.

Lex smirked, and opened his eyes, looking at the black dragon.

"Well, I haven’t reached the peak of the Celestial Immortal realm, but I can already tell you that anyone who gave up on the idea of harvesting those materials because of that advice... probably won’t become a Dao Lord to begin with."

The black dragon was stunned, not expecting to hear such words.

"How come?" he could not help but ask.

Lex glanced at him, and then back at the list of materials.

"They gave up before even entering the fight. With such a weak resolve, they won’t be able to overcome the Dao tribulations," Lex said casually as he refocused on the list. His words, though, rang like thunder in the ears of the black dragon, freezing it still.

He himself had not reached the peak of the Celestial realm, but the reason he had restrained himself was not because of the advice, but because he wanted to add the Dao materials to his hoard rather than use it himself. Still, he could see how adhering to that advice might be as a result of fear and lack of conviction.

While the dragon was lost in introspection, Lex was internally cursing.

’Fudge, fudge, fudge, fudge, fudge!’

Actually, he was quite annoyed that he had inadvertently caused his ascension to become more difficult. It wasn’t because Lex thought he wouldn’t be able to survive the tribulation, but because it seemed like his history of over the top tribulations would persist. He was actually slightly afraid of the phenomenon his Celestial tribulation would cause, so he could not even imagine the result of the Dao tribulation.

In the end, he just sighed internally, and let it go. All he could say was that it was his destiny to be exceptional, so he would always walk the harder path. It totally wasn’t because the easy path had already incidentally been cut off.

"We’ll start with this," said Lex as he pointed to something on the list. "The Memory of Rust will be our first target, and from there we can directly move towards the Forgotten Blood. They are both close enough to each other that we can get them in a single trip. Accounting for the distance from waygates, and the travel time to each resource, we should be able to complete the round trip in under three years."

Ambition burned deep in Lex’s heart, though he did not let it show. Although the dragon had told him his path would become more difficult if he absorbed Dao materials, it was already too late. In that case, he might as well commit all the way to it. Besides, his cultivation had never been normal to begin with.

A place as abundant in resources as the Gilded Hollow was not something he could encounter again and again. Even if his tribulation became harder... well, that was a problem for future Lex. What was he even going to do? Turn back time and beat himself up?

Heh, that was a bad joke.

As Lex talked to himself and soothed his spirit, a flicker of excitement also flashed through his eyes. Once he was done with the Hollow, the stalker would be in for one heck of a surprise.

He just hoped that the barrier around his body could hold up for another twenty years.